Italians: explorers of knowledge
October is a special month for Italian-Americans, dedicated as it is to their heritage and history. October is also the month remembering the coming of Christopher Columbus to the New World and, regardless to one’s personal view on the event, the figure of the Italian explorer is deeply rooted with the history of the United States and of the whole...
Best Thing We Ate This Week: Pizza at Pizzeria Lui
Thanks to Friday night traffic, it took me nearly 90 minutes to get there, but get there I did. I’d heard rumblings of an incredible pizzeria waaay down Mississippi Avenue in Lakewood. I’d seen the charred, bubbly crusted pictures popping up on Instagram. As a Neapolitan-style pizza enthusiast, I had to taste what the Pizzeria Lui chatter was all a...
'Tony n' Tina' still taking wedding vows in Chicago
If you're looking to attend one of the zaniest weddings around, head to Vinny Black’s Coliseum at Chicago Theater Works. “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” has been celebrated at that location for the past year with jubilant wedding guests joining in the fun. The interactive production recently celebrated it's one year anniversary in the Windy City. The sho...
Cosenza group makes sister city visit
The United States is often called a melting pot and Giovanni Greco of Italy can attest to that. “It’s very strange or surprising how, in the U.S., you see people coming from different countries,” he said Wednesday. “On the one hand, you see them keeping their ethnic identity. On the other, they are together.” Greco, the mayor of Castrolibero, Italy...
Giada Confirms Her Second Las Vegas Restaurant
Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis confirms her plans to open Pronto by Giada, at Caesars Palace in 2018. The follow-up to her very first restaurant, Giada at The Cromwell, takes a far more casual approach to dining, yet still combines her California take on Italian fare. Pronto by Giada plans to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with artisanal co...
Dali and Schiaparelli opens, the Shine mural festival closes
Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli, regarded as fashion's forefront designer of the 1920s and '30s in Paris, was known for her bold aesthetic and exquisite workmanship. Her designs were heavily influenced by the surrealists, particularly Salvador Dalí, with whom she often collaborated. That relationship is the subject of "Dalí and Schiaparelli," wh...
Divine dining: Bklynites chow down on Italian feast at W’burg Columbus-Day Giglio celebration
It was a buffet of biblical proportions! Hundreds of people flooded a Williamsburg street on Sunday for Columbus-Day Giglio, a scaled-down version of the massive feast that neighborhood Catholics celebrate for several days each July. And even though the party didn’t last as long as its summer counterpart, there was still plenty of food to go around...
Gibson's Italia opening Oct. 19
Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse in Chicago has been known for its quality USDA prime beef and the perfection of its ice-cold martinis since it opened its doors on Rush Street in 1989. Gibsons Restaurant Group, which has nine concepts (Lux Bar, Quartino, Hugo's Frog Bar) in 14 different locations, is the only restaurant group in the country to have its own...
Vita sullo schermo
In honor of Italian Heritage Month, UTSA’s Architecture and Modern Languages Departments have teamed up to host an Italian Film Festival throughout October. The department will be screening a modern Italian film every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. in the first floor gallery within the Monterey building on UTSA’s downtown campus this month. Four films in t...
Cooking New York Italian won him a Texas sweetheart
In 1964 I turned 18 and was drafted into the Army. I was trained as a medic and assigned to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, where I took care of my fellow comrades who had been wounded in Vietnam. Several dear friends were serving there at the time. In May 1965, I began caring for an outpatient named Mr. Garza....
Venice’s lions still roar
Rome has the she-wolf. Sicily has the 3-legged Medusa. And Turin has il toro, the bull. Up in the northeast, however, the lagoon city of Venice chose an even more exotic, mythical icon to symbolize its power and stature. And today, the winged lion of St. Mark stands guard across the city still, staring out from palace façades, pillar tops and the V...
A Brave New Beginning: The Formation of Italian America
Many Italians came from the economically-strapped Mezzogiorno: Sicilia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, and other southern regions of Italy. They scrimped to save the thirty dollars to book passage to L’America, dove le strade erano lastricate d’oro, where roads were paved in gold. As they prepared to leave, friends and family gathered in the piazz...